Hey hustler,

Welcome to the very first edition of Side Hustle Sunday.

Every week, I spend time digging through Reddit threads, blog posts, news articles, and anywhere else people share what's actually working for them.

Then I pull out the most interesting ones and drop them right here so you don't have to do the digging yourself.

Here's what caught my eye this week…

This one has been popping up everywhere lately. Inc. and Entrepreneur both covered it this past week as one of the highest-paying side hustles for 2026, based on research from a company called Journeybee.

The idea is simple: you film short videos of yourself using or reviewing a product, and the brand pays you for that content to use on their own social media. You don't need followers. You don't need a big audience. The brand runs the ads, not you. Starting rates are around $150 to $600 per video, and people who get good at it can charge a lot more.

I find this one really interesting because it flips the whole "influencer" thing on its head. You're basically a freelance content creator, and the barrier to entry is just a phone and a willingness to be on camera. If you're comfortable with that, this could be worth exploring.

🔗 Read the Inc. article on 2026's highest-paying side hustles

This one came from a Medium post published just a few days ago by Travis Nicholson, who says his side hustles bring in about $3,000/month in passive income. Among the 50 ideas he listed, this stood out to me because almost nobody talks about it.

The concept: companies lose data breach lawsuits and product recall cases all the time, and there are open settlement claims you can file for. Each submission takes about 20 minutes. The catch is that payouts can take months to arrive, so you need patience. But the barrier to entry is basically zero, and you can do it from your couch.

I love this idea because it's the kind of thing that's hiding in plain sight. Most people don't even realize these settlements exist, let alone that you can file for them. It's not going to replace your job, but it's free money for a bit of admin work.

🔗 Read the full list on Medium

This story is from a few months back, but I only came across it this week and it's too good not to share. A career coach named Wes started a Substack newsletter in mid-2024, mostly just to write and share what he was learning about growing an email list. He had no plan to sell anything.

Then readers started asking him questions. A lot of questions. So many that one person eventually asked if he had a guide they could buy. His first product was a $37 Google Doc explaining his system for growing a newsletter. He sent it to his small email list and made $800 in the first week. He went on to create two more simple products, and by the end of 2025, he'd crossed $100K in digital product revenue. His monthly overhead is about $100 total for Flo Desk and Stan Store.

The thing that makes this story stick is how unplanned it was. He didn't set out to build a product business. He just kept showing up, answered questions publicly, and turned the answers into something people could buy. You could do something similar with basically any topic you know well.

🔗 Read the full story on Substack

Entrepreneur featured this one in their end-of-year roundup, and it stuck with me. Marisa Risden, based in Denver, earns about $4,500 a month helping clients with home improvement tasks. We're talking electrical work, wall mounting, general repairs. Nothing wildly specialized, just solid handy skills applied consistently.

What I like about this is how real and unglamorous it is. There's no funnel, no content strategy, no algorithm to beat. People need stuff fixed, and they'll pay someone they trust to do it. The referral effect is strong too, because once you do good work for one person, their friends start calling.

This is a great option if you're practical and like working with your hands, and it's especially appealing if the idea of building an online business makes you want to close your laptop forever.

🔗 Read more on Entrepreneur